SpaceX CREW-2 MISSION

#SpaceX and #NASA launched on Friday, April 23 Falcon 9’s of Dragon’s second six-month operational crew mission (Crew-2) to the #International #SpaceStation (#ISS) from historic #Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s #Kennedy #SpaceCenter in #Florida.

Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

This is the first human #spaceflight #mission to #fly #astronauts on a flight-proven #Falcon9 and #Dragon.

The Falcon 9 first stage supporting this mission previously launched the Crew-1 mission in November 2020, and the Dragon #spacecraft previously flew Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to and from the International #SpaceStation during SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission in 2020.

As part of the Commercial Crew Program, NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet will fly aboard the Dragon spacecraft during the Crew-2 mission. On Saturday, April 24, at approximately 5:10 a.m. EDT, 9:10 UTC, Dragon will autonomously dock with the International Space Station. This will be the first time Dragon will fly two international partners and it will also be the first time two Crew Dragons are attached simultaneously to the orbiting laboratory.